Project Description

US Cellular Center

Seated in the heart of Asheville North Carolina, in the middle of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the US Cellular Center first opened in 1974 and serves as a venue for concerts, sporting events, trade/consumer shows, banquets, and more. The facility has 4 major areas of service including an Exhibition Hall, 7,200 seat Arena, 500 seat banquet hall and 2,431 seat Auditorium. Griffith Engineering was selected by the city of Asheville to perform an ASHRAE level 2 audit on the facility, to help the city produce a long term sustainability plan.

GEI audited the facility and constructed a detailed energy model of all 230,000 sqft of the facility

Modeling this facility provided a number of challenges that had to be overcome. The facility does not have a consistent operating schedule, with cooling and heating loads being mostly a function of scheduled events in different parts of the facility. Spaces are used uniquely by each event. As a result, custom event and weather schedule solutions were created for this model.